SW2: Am I doing it wrong?

[Leman Russ]

Recently I acquired the Star Wolves package from steam (SW1, SW2 together with a pre-ordered SW3). The first SW was an enjoyable game to play through, and I finished it a couple of days ago. My experience with the second SW is different though. I follow the missions (I chose the MSF side), but keep getting so much enemy resistance that I wonder if I'm missing something? I just got a third pilot, corsair, and still have only the most basic weapons/fighters/turrets/etc. Yet I now run into (seemingly) scripted fights involving 10 enemy fighters that easily outmatch me. This turns into an endless string of die-and-reload actions I have to perform that really take the joy out of the game for me. So my question is: what am I doing wrong? Am I supposed to play side missions before engaging in the main missions? Am I missing some tactics or insight? Or did they make the second installment of this game so much harder?